CALL FOR PAPERS
BEHIND THEIR BACKS:
ALTERNATIVE DISCOURSES IN QUESTION
BEHIND THEIR BACKS: ALTERNATIVE DISCOURSES IN QUESTION
1996 USC English Graduate Student Conference
Los Angeles, February 23-24, 1996
The world-wide web, talk shows, 'zines, "global village" satellite
connections. We find ourselves at a moment of unprecedented communication
potential in the English-speaking world. At the same time, a complex
picture of the interaction of our divergent socio-political dialogues has
emerged in the humanites. Together these two factors pose compelling
questions about the hierarchies, energies, and effects generated by all
this discourse. For instance, what is an "alternative discourse?" What,
in fact, constitutes the difference(s) that we deem "alternative?" What
*is* the dominant discourse (in academia, the social sphere, television,
film, etc.) and who invests in it and why? If these different discourses
oppose/undermine/resist a "dominant" discourse, what can we learn about
that dominance through an examination of those texts and technologies that
are generated to oppose/undermine/resist it? BEHIND THEIR BACKS will
explore these questions and others through an examination of specific
instances and intersections of communications and community.
Papers may address a variety of different topics from studies in state of
the art technologies to more "archaic" objects of scholarly interst. In
the spirit of the conference title, we seek to explore the notion of
alternative discourse from a variety of trajectories; alternative formats
are welcome and approaches from other disciplines are eagerly sought.
Potential topics include: *gossip *cybertalk *cyberporn *terrorism
*vigilantism *wordplay *film and video as political discourse *performance
art *marginalized discourse in the academy *postcolonial film and
literature *'zines, *signifyin' *emerging communications technologies
*_l'e'criture feminine_ *men in feminism *minority feminist discourses
*rap *hearsay *heresy *postmodern queer guerilla activism *cultual
subversion/domination and the NEA/NEH *Latino/a literatures in an
Anglo-dominant culture . . .
Interested applicants should send two (2) copies of papaer or abstract to:
Ms Amy Garawitz, Department of English, THH 420, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0354 or email: garawitz@scf.usc.edu
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPERS/ABSTRACTS IS DECEMBER 8, 1995.
Please post or forward this call for papers.